Prompt

I want to track time.

WorkEntry

The basic unit of work is a WorkEntry (a record in the Work table), which consists of

• a description
  • this freeform markdown entry serves the same purpose as a commit message
  • the first line is the title of the time entry
  • it can be edited
  • it can be null until the time entry is finished (i.e. the end time is set)
  • hashtags are used to add labels/tags
• an owner (person who does the work, not null)
• a start time (not null)
• an end time (null if the time entry is still active)
• a task (not null)

Task

A task is a larger unit of work—a container for work entries. It includes

• a title,
• a description,
• an owner (assigned person),
• an estimated time (hours),
• a status (new, in-progress, complete, canceled, paused, blocked),
• a start date, (may be null if the task is not started yet)
• an end date, (null if the task is not finished yet)
• a due date, (may be null)
• a parent task (null if it is a top-level task)

Labels/Tags

A Task or WorkEntry can have zero or more labels/tags. In the UI, these can be added with hashtags in the description, or as a separate field. The database might store them as a list of strings or a many-to-many relationship.

Project

A project is a container for tasks and sub-projects. It includes

• a title,
• a description,
• an owner,
• a time budget (maximum hours allowed),
• a start date, (may be null if the project is not started yet)
• an end date, (null if the project is not finished yet)
• a due date, (may be null)
• a status (new, in-progress, complete, canceled, paused, blocked)
• a parent project (null if it is a top-level project)

Dependencies

A task or project can depend on other tasks/projects—it cannot start until those are complete. This is a many-to-many relationship.

How is a Project related to a Task? Is a Project just a task with more metadata? Does it make sense in this context for a task to have sub-tasks, or is that the distinction: a Task is a leaf node in the hierarchy, and a Project is a container? Can something be stubbed as a task, and then later be expanded into a project?

Task and Project share the same schema. A minor difference is that a Project has a time budget, and a Task has an estimated time—but that is only a difference in interpretation. A Project is a container for tasks. A Task is a container for Work (WorkEntry).

A Project has additional documentation, such as a charter, a plan, a roadmap, and associated stakeholders, but these are not needed for tracking time. Stakeholders are needed only for the communication system, which is separate from time tracking.

Conclusion: Project is a Task with more metadata that is not needed for tracking time. A ProjectID is a TaskID—they share a keyspace. In the context of time tracking, a Task is a leaf node that contains only Work (WorkEntry).

Stakeholders

Stakeholders can be associated with a Project in the following ways:

• responsible—one or more people who do the work
• accountable—exactly one person who “owns” the project and decides when it is done, when it has met its chartered goals.
• consulted—zero or more people who contribute as subject matter experts and support the responsible/accountable persons
• informed—zero or more people who may be interested in the progress and outcome but do not influence it directly.

People

A person is a user of the system. The system needs to know their name, email address, phone number, and avatar.

What a person can do in a project/task depends on their role.

Roles and Permissions

Roles define what actions a person can perform within the system. The most common roles are:

• Admin: Can manage all aspects of the system, including users, projects, tasks, and settings.
• Project Owner: Has full control over a specific project, including editing project details, assigning roles, and archiving or deleting the project.
• Contributor/Member: Can view and update tasks and work entries within projects they are assigned to, but cannot change project-level settings or manage other users.
• Viewer/Guest: Can view projects and tasks but cannot make changes.

Example of permitted actions by role:

Action	Admin	Project Owner	Contributor	Viewer
Create/Edit/Delete Project	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
Assign Roles	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
Add/Edit/Delete Task	✔️	✔️	✔️??	❌
Log Work Entry	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Edit Work Entry (own)	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Edit Work Entry (others)	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
View Project/Task Details	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Archive Project/Task	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
Manage Labels/Tags	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌

Roles can be assigned per project, so a user may be a Project Owner in one project and a Contributor in another.

Note: The system should enforce permissions at both the UI and API/database level to ensure data integrity and security.